by Pete Harris

on 11.02.17

The other week, I posted a message on LinkedIn to call out Dell Technologies on its recent, high-profile announcement of an Internet of Things (IoT) initiative. The tech giant plans to invest $1 billion in IoT developments over the next three years, CEO Michael Dell told an audience at a ...

by Pete Harris

on 10.19.17

The recent news regarding Oracle and blockchain technology is really important. In some ways, Oracle’s embrace of the blockchain is more significant than IBM’s big bet on the technology and Microsoft’s support for it. While Oracle’s blockchain ambitions were socialized over the summer via blog ...

by Pete Harris

on 09.07.17

Since launching the Hyperledger Project, IBM has elevated its blockchain focus to align it with its cloud business and its activities in artificial intelligence and IoT architectures. IBM’s blockchain business is still in its early days. Numbers have not been published but its investment has ...

by Pete Harris

on 07.06.17

In the world of financial markets, there’s an old saying (from 1984) attributed to former Citicorp CEO and chairman Walter Wriston: “Information about money has become almost as important as money itself.” More than 30 years later, that sentiment has surely become a truism, especially in an age ...

by Pete Harris

on 06.01.17

Part one of this article looked at blockchain pilot deployment challenges and suggested that having DevOps skills on the implementation team could help. This article aims to highlight complex data integration issues as another aspect of roll out that will be critical in moving blockchains from ...

by Pete Harris

on 05.04.17

At a conference in Houston, TX, last month, R3’s Tim Grant presented his version of a “blockchain adoption timeline.” It seemed to reflect a broader industry view that while 2014 was “The Year of Enlightenment” and 2015 “The Year of the Hype,” 2017 will be the year that blockchain projects move ...

by Pete Harris

on 04.26.17

This year is set to be a big one for companies looking to implement their first live pilots of applications built on blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Drawing on the experience of in-house lab experiments and proof-of-concept (PoC) tests, these early adopters will be looking to ...

by Pete Harris

on 04.20.17

As was noted in part one of this analysis, 2017 will see companies looking to implement their first live pilots of applications built on blockchain and distributed ledger technology.A big difference between a proof-of-concept and a pilot is that in the latter deployment scenario, the blockchain ...

by Pete Harris

on 03.02.17

With this week’s launch of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), companies looking to implement blockchain technology for production business applications got another open-source option to explore, as an alternative to the Fabric and Corda platforms in development under the stewardship of the ...

by Pete Harris

on 01.19.17

The recent news that the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is planning to rebuild a key element of its trade processing infrastructure using distributed ledger technology supports the notion that proof-of-concept (PoC) projects are now transforming into real-life pilots. It also ...

by Pete Harris

on 12.15.16

R3 CEV – the fintech company that leads the R3 financial services distributed ledger consortium – has been in the news a lot in recent weeks, though not always with the most positive spin. The negative news broke last month that a number of the banks that joined as early members of the ...

by Pete Harris

on 11.03.16

R3 CEV, a leading financial services consortium, has announced its intention to open source its Corda distributed ledger technology via the Hyperledger Project—in which it is a major member—despite its plans to patent Corda.According to a spokesperson for R3, the patent application and open ...

by Pete Harris

on 09.22.16

The transition from “talking” about blockchains to “walking” with them is increasingly cited as a required next step for 2017. To that end, financial services IT specialist Synechron has released a set of “accelerators” that will enable firms to deliver early blockchain-based apps faster, more ...

by Pete Harris

on 09.08.16

R3 CEV, which is leading a financial services consortium investigating distributed ledger technology, has filed a patent for Corda, a shared ledger offering it developed. The company also announced Project Concord, a fully functioned platform that represents its “vision for the future of ...

by Pete Harris

on 08.25.16

The infrastructure that underpins the healthcare industry is increasingly cited as ripe for a redux based on blockchain technology – to improve efficiency and reduce costs, and provide better services to patients. But the devil is in the details, so Distributed asked David George, Chief ...

by Pete Harris

on 08.11.16

Although SETL, the London-based institutional payment and settlement startup, has launched a commercial blockchain platform named OpenCSD – for Central Securities Depository – the company maintains a major focus on payments between counterparties to a transaction. That’s because, as CEO Peter ...

by Pete Harris

on 07.27.16

The financial markets post-trade space is one application area that shows much promise for blockchain and distributed ledger technology, with several startups and internal bank projects focused on it. Clearable is one of those startups, with a particular focus on the global foreign exchange ...

by Pete Harris

on 07.14.16

R3 CEV, which leads a financial services-focused distributed ledger consortium, recently delved deeper into smart contract technology by hosting a Smart Contracts Template Summit bringing together groups in both London and New York City. As the summit’s name suggested, the overall goal was to ...

by Pete Harris

on 06.30.16

“Within one value chain - the pharmaceutical supply chain for drug products - many use cases exist across the board where there’s an opportunity to leverage blockchain technology. Why? Because in this value chain there are many points where processes break down due to a lack of transparency and ...

by Pete Harris

on 06.16.16

A four-person project calling itself DIID – for Distributed ID – was awarded the $20,000 grand prize in the 24-hour hackathon that preceded the Distributed: Trade conference in St. Louis, Missouri earlier this week. The team developed a prototype of an application that provides a “solution to ...

by Pete Harris

on 06.02.16

The insurance industry may be lagging in blockchain development compared to what is happening in other financial services areas, such as capital markets trade processing and payments, but it too is exploring distributed ledger approaches to common industry challenges. Farron Blanc, Vice ...

by Pete Harris

on 05.19.16

The business of moving commercial goods around the planet represents billions of dollars in enterprise revenue—as well as losses and inefficiencies resulting from risk, fraud or anachronistic manual paperwork delays. The good news is that few sectors are poised to so dramatically benefit from ...

by Pete Harris

on 05.05.16

The recent news that SWIFT and DTCC, both established financial post-trade utilities, are taking tangible steps to explore blockchain technology points to increasing acceptance that blockchains and distributed ledger technology have a place – albeit a future one – as a core infrastructure ...

by Pete Harris

on 04.21.16

Senthil Radhakrishnan, who has worked within the financial services vertical for over 15 years, has a front-row seat on the growth and development of blockchain technology and its potential use in financial applications. Through his work as head of the Global Banking and Financial Services (BFS) ...

by Pete Harris

on 04.14.16

Microsoft’s announcement last week that it is partnering with bank consortium leader R3 CEV wasn’t the first time that the Redmond, Washington-based IT giant has been linked with blockchain developments. However, along with the previous week’s news related to its Visual Studio development ...

by Pete Harris

on 03.23.16

On the face of it, the recent news of financial markets operator ICAP’s foray into blockchain technology is a further example of how trading firms are looking to reduce inefficiency, risk and costs in post-trade processes. That is certainly part of the story, but the proof-of-technology, as the ...

by Pete Harris

on 03.17.16

Ron Quaranta is a financial markets veteran who has been the driving force behind the creation and growth of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, an industry advocacy group focusing on promotion of blockchain technology within the financial markets. He recently spoke to Pete Harris of Lighthouse ...

by Pete Harris

on 03.10.16

Last week’s news that 40 major banks had completed a series of tests of smart contract technology running on a variety of blockchain and cloud offerings made the headlines for its scope and scale. It also represented a significant – though still baby – step for R3 CEV, the New York City-based ...

by Pete Harris

on 02.25.16

Announced at the end of last year, the Hyperledger Project has billed itself as a “collaborative effort created to advance blockchain technology by identifying and addressing important features for a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers that can transform the way business ...

by Pete Harris

on 02.18.16

Last week saw the debut of The Block Chain Conference in San Francisco, an event produced by Lighthouse Partners to bridge the gap between the “IT establishment” – major vendors and users of enterprise IT – and the blockchain startup world. Around 240 delegates and speakers participated, and ...